Kolam

Wet hair turbaned in white weave
And body swathed in bright silk
She begins her morning ritual.
Hand and gaze steady with purpose
Stretch double lines from point to point
In bright white on earth blackened by wetness.
Dark empty spaces take form in the betweens
Shapes dance and change; here a triangle, there a circle.
Opposites combine to calculatedly conceal
Mysteries of the known and the unknown;
The seen and the hidden; an anubhava and a darshana.
Some she fills with color proposing desire
Some she leaves alone for His disposed grace.
Her auspicious algorithms welcome auguries
And the ants that scattered return on cue to feed.